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Thread: Howard Hughes

  1. #1
    SugarKane Guest

    Howard Hughes

    What is your take on the man? I think the work he did and his strange-recluse ending are very interesting. Plus, there is the whole story about a gas station owner who gave him a ride and was then promised part of his fortune? fraud or for real?

    Even though he wasn't in the media for several years before his death, this is the time magazine depiction of how he looked at the time of his death...he refused to have his nails or hair cut!
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  2. #2
    mommafreak Guest
    I wonder how close the movie "aviator" came to his life. In photos that i've seen of him and Hepburn, those in the movie did a fantastic job.

  3. #3
    firegilnotguns Guest
    I can't help but think of Mr. Burns in that one Simpsons episode where he was all Howard Hughes-like. "I said get in."

  4. #4
    onehunglow Guest
    Sounds like the Goons hired to watch him made sure they had him under their control. He was used!

  5. #5
    monhol Guest
    my mom told me howard did not bathe or cut his hair. i saw a drawing of him from someone who claims to have seen him. he was skinny, hairy, and wrinkled. he was cleaned up after his death. i work with the elderly and that is some of the classic tell tale signs of some form of dementia.when you have money people will not tell you right from wrong and will not seek psychiatric treatment as well. as we all know howard had a brain on him and people smart as him seem to be a little nutty from the door. it is so sad that those are some of the people who will come down with dementia. samuel clemons(mark twain) became a recluse in the end, painting his windows black. he was very smart. so i know he had some form of dementia. dementia is a very ugly disease. when ronald reagan died, i did not need to see what he looked like in death. i could imagine it.that was the reason for the closed casket.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by SugarKane View Post
    Plus, there is the whole story about a gas station owner who gave him a ride and was then promised part of his fortune? fraud or for real?
    Actually someone stepped forward with proof (finally!) that Howard was in the area where Melvin picked him up and they are supposedly going to re-try everything in court.

    The movie "Melvin & Howard" is based on this story and it's a pretty good movie. Poor Melvin got a pretty raw deal.

  7. #7
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    Monhol- Dementia is very bad. I work with those who suffer from this disease. Alot of people that I've cared for were very dignified people, I had psychologist, doctor, nurses, teachers, artists, musician, actors, engineers. I mean these people had to use their noggin 100% of the time. To see them in their last stages of their life is very heartbreaking. I believe that Howard Hughes did suffer from some kind of dementia. All the signs are there.

  8. #8
    Guest Guest
    Katherine Hepburn said that Howard was borderline deaf but too proud to ask people to repeat themselves if he missed it the first time, so he met with fewer and fewer people. Kept retreating inwards until he couldn't get back out again.

  9. #9
    RoRo Guest
    I think his handlers mistreated him badly...I work with the elderly too and when they have dementia you really have to work sometimes to keep them looking presentable....I had one lady that would play with her hair constantly and it kept getting knotted up..the family wouldn't cut it.Stuff like that happens alot, I can see it happening with Hughes

  10. #10
    knothere Guest
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Hughes

    wonder if he did get away with murder

  11. #11
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    My Mom died of complications of alzheimers/dementia (she forgot or could not swallow, choked on her food and the crappy place she was at didn't have a single person who knew the heimlich maneuver) and suffered from progressively worse dementia beginning about 12 LONG years before she died.

    My Mom was and still is the most intelligent person I have ever known and was a Civil Engineer by profession. But as her dementia progressed, while she somehow retained her amazing mathematical skills, she became very similar in behavior to the way Howard Hughes was described in his last few years.

    My Mom had a beautiful wardrobe, but toward the end she would only wear one outfit constantly, even refusing to change to wash it. It was so sad because she was always so professional but by the time she died you would have thought she was a homeless person.

    I tend to believe the school of thought that Howard Hughes' mental problems were brought on by all the pain killers he had to take after the airplane crash that almost killed him. Living in constant pain for all those years would also make a person lose their mind.
    Any day above ground is a good day.

  12. #12
    ST Moron Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Aries65 View Post
    Actually someone stepped forward with proof (finally!) that Howard was in the area where Melvin picked him up and they are supposedly going to re-try everything in court.
    Could you elaborate on the new proof a bit more?

    I always found the Melvin and Howard story so far-fetched it couldn't possibly be made up: it was just too weird.

  13. #13
    monhol Guest
    yes demetia is a ugly and is sometimes hard to keep them looking nice. sometimes the family is in denial and do not want small things like a hair cut. also the patient may fight his or her caretakers. some of them refuse to bathe. but i believe some of that is because they did not bathe that much anyhow because they had to do a lot of things to retreive water. remember some of the elderly had no indoor plumbing.so they would get the water heat it up and put in an basin and wash standing up. now the facilities for the elderly give showers. alot of the elderly did not take showers. so to have a strange person spraying water on you is like an attack. they may have gotten in the tin tub once a week mainly on sundays for church. some of those elderly can knock the hell out of ya. so to take care of someone with dementia is very hard in itself. it is all in the approach. you can't grab him or her by the arm and say 'hey get in the shower'. you need to be more gentle. all i know is it is hard and a even harder disease.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by ST Moron View Post
    Could you elaborate on the new proof a bit more?

    I always found the Melvin and Howard story so far-fetched it couldn't possibly be made up: it was just too weird.
    Check out this link:

    http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600114069,00.html

  15. #15
    tngirl1967 Guest
    I discovered Howard Hughes and I shared the same affliction and I went out and read everything I could find on him. He was severely obsessive compulsive, and I can relate to what he went through in regards to freaking out and then the compulsive disorder taking over. It is hellish to live with, and years of $$$ therapy every week still doesn't stop me from freaking when I get severely stressed. (Example, one of my compulsions is that I count my steps, up to 12, then start over, and over again when I am flipped out. That is a mild example of a compulsion mind you!). Fortunately, I haven't turned to self-medicating yet, or needing handlers, and hope I never do. Nowadays they have the wonderful cognitive behavior therapy-ha! I thought it was interesting when The Aviator was made Leonardo DiCaprio spent time with inpatients in a mental institution who were there for severe OCD, to learn exactly what it was all about and what they go through in order to give depth to the role of Howard.
    All I can say is, God rest his tormented soul. I don't know about dementia, but I know all too well about OCD. There is nothing neat-freak about it, or not stepping on sidewalk cracks....it is pure panic striken hell with no hope in sight when it strikes. And it can make you do anything, absolutely anything, to prevent that feeling of doom. I understand why he locked himself away and never ate, bathed, or wanted to see light of day.
    Last edited by tngirl1967; 11-04-2007 at 09:02 PM. Reason: clarification

  16. #16
    Kathyf Guest
    I think he was a very eccentric man with a lot of OCD'S. In Aviator the movie it seems Katherine Hepburn tried to help him. I think at the end is when he stopped bathing and grooming. He probably didn't care.

  17. #17
    Reecy Guest
    It was sad to see him spend the last years of his life in such sadness. I wish they would've given him some brain stimulation like the electricity to shake him up a bit.

  18. #18
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    The last years of his life were filled with such ummm craziness that it overshadows what a great man this man was. The stuff he did in the early days, designing aircraft, forming airlines, making movies, discovering starlets...he was an amazing man.

    The survival of everyone on board depends on just one thing: finding someone on board who can not only fly this plane, but who didn't have fish for dinner.

  19. #19
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    i saw a documentary on a&e about him, i believe it was, some of his thoughts/inventions are still used by nasa it said. i'm not a big dicaprio fan but i thought his performance in "the aviator" was superb!
    "I'm not great at the advice, can I interest you in a sarcastic comment?"



  20. #20
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    I just bought the book 'Citizen Hughes'. Into the first chapter which deals about the break in at his bunker on 7000 Romanie in L.A. Fascinating stuff.
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  21. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by tngirl1967 View Post
    I discovered Howard Hughes and I shared the same affliction and I went out and read everything I could find on him. He was severely obsessive compulsive, and I can relate to what he went through in regards to freaking out and then the compulsive disorder taking over. It is hellish to live with, and years of $$$ therapy every week still doesn't stop me from freaking when I get severely stressed. (Example, one of my compulsions is that I count my steps, up to 12, then start over, and over again when I am flipped out. That is a mild example of a compulsion mind you!). Fortunately, I haven't turned to self-medicating yet, or needing handlers, and hope I never do. Nowadays they have the wonderful cognitive behavior therapy-ha! I thought it was interesting when The Aviator was made Leonardo DiCaprio spent time with inpatients in a mental institution who were there for severe OCD, to learn exactly what it was all about and what they go through in order to give depth to the role of Howard.
    All I can say is, God rest his tormented soul. I don't know about dementia, but I know all too well about OCD. There is nothing neat-freak about it, or not stepping on sidewalk cracks....it is pure panic striken hell with no hope in sight when it strikes. And it can make you do anything, absolutely anything, to prevent that feeling of doom. I understand why he locked himself away and never ate, bathed, or wanted to see light of day.
    God bless you, tngirl, I struggle with the same thing too. Cognitive therapy helps, but damn it all, sometimes my mind just goes on autopilot and I have to wait it out. Have recently (in the last six months) gone on anti-anxiety drugs, which have really helped. Mental illness sucks big time, thank GOD there are better tools these days to deal with it.

    Hang in there as you continue on your journey!
    Any day above ground is a good day.

  22. #22
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    Stay tuned, on the weekend I will post about a page and a half from the book I am reading dealing with his physical condition when he was a recluse. Very graphic and though I knew he was in a bad way, this takes it to an entirely new level.
    I am a sick puppy....woof woof!!!
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  23. #23
    Noor 7ayaty Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by tngirl1967 View Post
    I discovered Howard Hughes and I shared the same affliction and I went out and read everything I could find on him. He was severely obsessive compulsive, and I can relate to what he went through in regards to freaking out and then the compulsive disorder taking over. It is hellish to live with, and years of $$$ therapy every week still doesn't stop me from freaking when I get severely stressed. (Example, one of my compulsions is that I count my steps, up to 12, then start over, and over again when I am flipped out. That is a mild example of a compulsion mind you!).
    TNGal, that an awesome point, and the film showed that even from an early age, Hughes was OC, and that he slowly over time worsened. It's said that Donald Trump freaks out if someone touches his hands, and is OC about washing them. If you're poor this is "nuts." If you're rich, they call it "eccentric."

    Roseanne Barr did a *hilarious* bit on her OC. She's manic about checking her stove at night, has to touch each knob during the several-times she'll check it, and worries about it when she's away from home. And that's just one of her things, she has others. Man, it was funny. And sometimes we just gotta laugh at 'ol life Honestly I think everyone is OC and bipolar, it's just to varying degrees.

  24. #24
    Noor 7ayaty Guest
    Been a while since I saw the movie: Did he die a junkie? I seem to recall some footnote somewhere about there being pieces of broken-off needles embedded in his arms (discovered after his death). Am I remembering that right?

  25. #25
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    Quote Originally Posted by Noor 7ayaty View Post
    Been a while since I saw the movie: Did he die a junkie? I seem to recall some footnote somewhere about there being pieces of broken-off needles embedded in his arms (discovered after his death). Am I remembering that right?
    His body was covered in track marks from the codeine he was shooting. Major junkie.
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  26. #26
    Noor 7ayaty Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by neilmpenny View Post
    Stay tuned, on the weekend I will post about a page and a half from the book I am reading dealing with his physical condition when he was a recluse. Very graphic and though I knew he was in a bad way, this takes it to an entirely new level.
    The bit I recall was about his wearing tissue boxes for shoes (which was lampooned in the animated movie "Madagascar"). But I don't think that had to do with slovenliness; he was manic about germs, and that gave him an easy -- and in his mind, sanitary -- change of what covered his feet often. If I recall, I think the place he'd holed himself up in had mutiple stacks of tissue boxes. He'd take a bite of food, then immediately cover his plate with a fresh Kleenex. Then he'd chunk that tissue, eat another bite, then re-cover plate with a fresh tissue. So evidently he had no trouble saving up the boxes! It was all about the germs to him -- obsessively germophobic (sp?)

    Nikolai Tesla was similar. His friend Mark Twain wrote that Tesla would always insist of the same table at a particular gentleman's club they frequented. Waiters were well versed to place a very high stack of fresh linen napkins beside his plate. Then he went about a ritual of arranging the table, polishing each eating untensil (one per napkin), and finally, divinding his food mathematically before consumption. And he was certainly one hell of a genius. Yet if a single element of this ritual was out of place, such as a rice substitution for potato, he'd just get up and leave, and skip eating that meal altogether.

    Yet more creedence to the theory that genuis is the cusp of so-called 'insanity' ...

  27. #27
    Noor 7ayaty Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by neilmpenny View Post
    His body was covered in track marks from the codeine he was shooting. Major junkie.
    Now see, this makes no sense to me. He's germaphobic (sp??lol) yet shooting up is both invasive and can lead to ways for germs to get into one's system.

    Wasn't he flown, very late in his life, to a foreign country to seek some miracle cure, but they deemed his body too frail? Or was that The National Enquirer? lol

  28. #28
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    From the book 'Citizen Hughes'

    There were dangers everywhere, and he was so vulnerable. The world was dealing with a facade. The real Howard Hughes lay hidden in a self-made prison, a naked old man in terrible pain and terminal terror, living like an inmate in the back ward of a mental institution, looking like a corpse laid out on a slab in the city morgue.
    He was a figure of gothic horror, something ready for or just risen from the grave. Emaciated, practically skeletal with only 120 pounds stretched out over his six-foot-four-inch frame, and hardly a speck of colour about him anywhere, not even his lips, he seemed not merely dead but already in decay. Only the long grey hair that trailed half way down his back, the thin scraggly beard that reached midway onto his sunken chest, and the hideously long nails that extended several inches in grotesque yellowed corkscrews from his fingers and toes seemed to be growing, still showing signs of life. That, and his eyes. Sometimes they looked dead, blank. But other times they gleamed from their deep sunk sockets with surprising, almost frightening intensity, fixed in a hard, searching, penetrating stair. Often, however, they seemed to stare in, not out.
    Hughes was in pain. Physical pain. Mental pain. Deep, unrelenting pain. Many of his teeth were rotting black stumps, some just dangling loose from his puffy, whitened, pus-filled gums. A tumor was beginning to emerge from the side of his head, a reddened lump protruding through the sparse strands of gray hair. He had bedsores festering all down his back, some so severe that eventually one shoulder blade-the bare bone-would poke through his parchment like skin. And then there were the heedle marks. The telltale tracks ran the full length of both his thin arms, scarred his thighs, and clustered horribly around his groin.
    Howard Hughes was an addict. A billionaire junkie. He was shooting up massive amounts if codeine, routinely "skin-popping" more than twenty grains daily, sometimes three or four times that much, regularly taking doses thought lethal. He had been hooked for two decades, ever since a 1946 plane crash, when his doctor prescribed morphine to ease the pain of what everyone thought would be his final hours. As he instead recovered, the doctors substituted codeine, and through the years Hughes demanded even-larger doses, finally setting up a byzantine illegal supply operation, getting prescriptions filled under assumed names at various Los Angeles drug stores.
    Often now he would wake in the terrors of withdrawal and begin his day by reaching down to the black metal box by his bedside where he kept his stash and his unsterilized hypodermic needle. Immediately mixing a fix, he would dissolve several white tablets in his pure bottled Poland Spring water, then jab the spike into his wasted body. Sometimes he prolonged the ritual by "double-pumping," injecting half the white fluid, then drawing it back up into the syringe with his blood, letting the needle dangle for a moment before he shot the full load back into his system. Then he would relax, and in the first warm flush of relief and satisfaction now and then softly sing a little jingle to himself, a little scat bebop routine he remembered from the old days. "Hey-bop-a-ree-bop. Hey-bop-a-ree-bop." And finally maybe a quiet chuckle.
    There were other drugs, and the codeine was not the worst of them. Hughes was also gobbling massive quantities of tranquilizers, up to two hundred milligrams of Valium and Librium at a single shot, ten times the normal dose. Blue bombers. And when he wasn't shooting codeine, he was swallowing fistfuls of Empirin #4, a prescription compound containing codeine, aspirin, caffeine, and a synthetic pain-killer called phenacetin. It was not the codeine but the phenacetin that was doing the real damage, ravaging his already shrunken kidneys. Eventually it would kill him.
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  29. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by Noor 7ayaty View Post
    The bit I recall was about his wearing tissue boxes for shoes (which was lampooned in the animated movie "Madagascar"). But I don't think that had to do with slovenliness; he was manic about germs, and that gave him an easy -- and in his mind, sanitary -- change of what covered his feet often. If I recall, I think the place he'd holed himself up in had mutiple stacks of tissue boxes. He'd take a bite of food, then immediately cover his plate with a fresh Kleenex. Then he'd chunk that tissue, eat another bite, then re-cover plate with a fresh tissue. So evidently he had no trouble saving up the boxes! It was all about the germs to him -- obsessively germophobic (sp?)
    Actually it was far far worse than that. I will find the passage that describes his living conditions.
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  30. #30
    tngirl1967 Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by geekygirl View Post
    God bless you, tngirl, I struggle with the same thing too. Cognitive therapy helps, but damn it all, sometimes my mind just goes on autopilot and I have to wait it out. Have recently (in the last six months) gone on anti-anxiety drugs, which have really helped. Mental illness sucks big time, thank GOD there are better tools these days to deal with it.

    Hang in there as you continue on your journey!
    Thanks so much! BTW, a xanax here and there helps tremendously . However, part of my OCD is that I am afraid of taking medicines--so when I really need a xanax I won't take one ! There's a good example of the illogical, irrational side of OCD.
    I have learned to keep it all in check really well, but honestly, it doesn't make me feel any better. I can relate to why everyone would wonder why HH was a germophobe, yet shoot up, etc....that is the nature of the beast with OCD. I can kiss my dog on the snoot with all those doggy germs and prior butt licking and feed him off one of my nice forks or spoons, and then turn around and go on binges of only eating single-color foods, like rice, potatoes, etc...so I can easily see if there is a bug part or whatever in it......being really crazy about "something" possibly being in my food even though I know there's not. It is truly the nature of OCD. Nothing makes sense. That is where the cognitive recognition therapy comes in.....you are basically catching yourself being irrational and stopping yourself. (I paid a LOT of money to learn that-how's that for rational?)
    HH was a genius. Something else I learned through therapy was that people with higher math skills in particular are prone to OCD and other compulsive disorders. I wonder if he had today's treatment available back then just exactly how much that man could have invented.

    The one thing I thought very great that came from his legacy- the Howard Hughes Medical Center.

  31. #31
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    My mom said she had a crush on HH as a teenager. He was considered a hot tomato back then.
    .

  32. #32
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    Quote Originally Posted by tngirl1967 View Post
    Thanks so much! BTW, a xanax here and there helps tremendously . However, part of my OCD is that I am afraid of taking medicines--so when I really need a xanax I won't take one ! There's a good example of the illogical, irrational side of OCD.
    I have learned to keep it all in check really well, but honestly, it doesn't make me feel any better. I can relate to why everyone would wonder why HH was a germophobe, yet shoot up, etc....that is the nature of the beast with OCD. I can kiss my dog on the snoot with all those doggy germs and prior butt licking and feed him off one of my nice forks or spoons, and then turn around and go on binges of only eating single-color foods, like rice, potatoes, etc...so I can easily see if there is a bug part or whatever in it......being really crazy about "something" possibly being in my food even though I know there's not. It is truly the nature of OCD. Nothing makes sense. That is where the cognitive recognition therapy comes in.....you are basically catching yourself being irrational and stopping yourself. (I paid a LOT of money to learn that-how's that for rational?)
    HH was a genius. Something else I learned through therapy was that people with higher math skills in particular are prone to OCD and other compulsive disorders. I wonder if he had today's treatment available back then just exactly how much that man could have invented.

    The one thing I thought very great that came from his legacy- the Howard Hughes Medical Center.
    How interesting, I had never heard of the connection between higher math skills and OCD and other compulsive disorders. On my Mom's side of the family, including my Mom and sister, mental illness runs rampant, et at least for my Mom and a couple of aunts, I would consider them to be of genius level. Those who are mentally ill suffer from a bunch of stuff including OCD, alcoholism, compulsive overeating, etc. I do not consider myself anywhere near genius level (it takes me a long time to understand stuff and always felt I was the stupid one in my family), but I too suffer from OCD and compulsive overeating.

    Thanks so much for your reply. Sometimes I wonder if I am bringing things on myself, that perhaps I am doing something wrong. As time goes on the evidence suggests genetics and nothing I could have done to prevent it, especially when my family of origin were all so whacked out.
    Any day above ground is a good day.

  33. #33
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    Quote Originally Posted by geekygirl View Post
    How interesting, I had never heard of the connection between higher math skills and OCD and other compulsive disorders. On my Mom's side of the family, including my Mom and sister, mental illness runs rampant, et at least for my Mom and a couple of aunts, I would consider them to be of genius level. Those who are mentally ill suffer from a bunch of stuff including OCD, alcoholism, compulsive overeating, etc. I do not consider myself anywhere near genius level (it takes me a long time to understand stuff and always felt I was the stupid one in my family), but I too suffer from OCD and compulsive overeating.

    Thanks so much for your reply. Sometimes I wonder if I am bringing things on myself, that perhaps I am doing something wrong. As time goes on the evidence suggests genetics and nothing I could have done to prevent it, especially when my family of origin were all so whacked out.
    I have a co-worker at my present job who is a germophobe. She refuses to shake hands with anyone, will not participate in any type of potlucks, birthdays for anyone for the company, won't touch any donuts or snacks left out for everyone, and all her stuff she keeps in the fridge is sealed in plastic bags!

    She's the sweetest lady and I really like her and just sort of shake my head and smile at her "odd" ways. And I think I've won her over in some way, since once and a while she'll tap me on the shoulder - something she doesn't do with anyone else.

  34. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by Aries65 View Post
    I have a co-worker at my present job who is a germophobe. She refuses to shake hands with anyone, will not participate in any type of potlucks, birthdays for anyone for the company, won't touch any donuts or snacks left out for everyone, and all her stuff she keeps in the fridge is sealed in plastic bags!

    She's the sweetest lady and I really like her and just sort of shake my head and smile at her "odd" ways. And I think I've won her over in some way, since once and a while she'll tap me on the shoulder - something she doesn't do with anyone else.
    That's cool, Aries. I would consider that the ultimate compliment. It's wonderful that you can see her good qualities in spite of her weaknesses and then be able to reach out to her. You are a wonderful person!
    Any day above ground is a good day.

  35. #35
    tngirl1967 Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by Aries65 View Post
    I have a co-worker at my present job who is a germophobe. She refuses to shake hands with anyone, will not participate in any type of potlucks, birthdays for anyone for the company, won't touch any donuts or snacks left out for everyone, and all her stuff she keeps in the fridge is sealed in plastic bags!

    She's the sweetest lady and I really like her and just sort of shake my head and smile at her "odd" ways. And I think I've won her over in some way, since once and a while she'll tap me on the shoulder - something she doesn't do with anyone else.
    Yes, yes, please take that as a compliment. That is a sign you are in her trusted circle. Sometimes it is more a trust issue than a germ issue!

  36. #36
    Ceci Guest
    Yes, the Howard Hughes story is rather sad because he was a brilliant man who had to endure such obstacles in his life. His life was rather amazing. He teaches us all about the ability to cope under such terrible odds.

  37. #37
    Nowereman Guest
    He was a great businessman , but mentally unstable which got worse as he got older, Then he was forced to sell his Tool company which we was given by his father by which he was able to build all his wealth put him over the end, he became a total drugged up recluse.

  38. #38
    Helby Guest
    Just saw a great hour long show on national geographic about him. says he had three major concussions in his life that may have contributed to his mental health. plus oon here are some pictures from inside his office building which noone at the time..was allowed in when hughes was alive...

    http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=564

  39. #39
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    Very very very cool. Thank you so much for sharing. I have read about 7000 Romanie but never seen it, let alone the interior. I will study the pics in great depth tonight.
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    http://www.pinterest.com/neilmpenny

  40. #40
    Bashterd Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by neilmpenny View Post
    I just bought the book 'Citizen Hughes'. Into the first chapter which deals about the break in at his bunker on 7000 Romanie in L.A. Fascinating stuff.
    Thank you for the heads up and the exerpt from the book. I am now running out this evening and buying (yea local boarders has it in stock) looks fascinating!!!!!! Thanks again.

  41. #41
    Bidmor Guest
    Everytime I see a commercial currently running on DirecTv for HughesNet satellite internet service I think of him...yeah, HughesNet is a descendant company of Hughes Aerospace.

    It's as if true genius' brains are running so fast, pumping out new technologies, that the brain finally wears out and shuts down part of itself, the part that produces sensible thoughts.

  42. #42
    NOVSTORM Guest
    I stayed at the hotel in Vegas where he had the 2 upper floors. I saw him and his "men" leaving and they had him surrounded . He wasn't all that ill at that time as he was walking by himself and he looked pretty nice. I read that after his plane crash that he had a lot of brain damage. In the end I think he was really being held hostage by these goons he had in his employ. They didn't seek medical help for him and collected these huge paychecks.

  43. #43
    Robert Vesco Guest
    I keep an old, worn out paperback copy of "Citizen Hughes" in my nightstand. It's the kind of book you can pick up, turn to any page, and get pulled into the brilliant, terrifying and weird world of Howard Hughes. Among the gems:
    • Hughes was deathly afraid of the atomic testing in Nevada, and flooded Presidents Johnson and Nixon with professional lobbyists, cash bribes, public relations campaigns, and personal letters in order to get them stopped. But when Nixon offered to send Henry Kissinger to Nevada to talk to Hughes about the testing, Hughes refused to see him.
    • Sadly, Hughes was an admitted racist, who wanted to cancel a tennis tournament at the Desert Inn when he found out Arthur Ashe was going to be playing there. (His saner executives talked him out of it.) He also ended his attempts to buy out the ABC television network after he saw a black man (James Earl Jones) kiss a white woman on one of their television shows.
    • The Goon Squad that surrounded Hughes ultimately drove all of the people who cared about Hughes away. In one of his last public outings in the 1970's, Hughes actually got behind the wheel of an airplane, and (stark naked) happily flew the plane for hours. But the Good Squad, fearing a loss of control, quickly cut the airplane's owner off from contact with Hughes so that he could no longer take those flights.
    • Hughes's penthouse suite at the Desert Inn had one of the best views of the Las Vegas Strip at that time. But Hughes pulled blackout curtains down over the windows and taped them to the walls, and not once in the four years that he lived there did he ever peel back the curtains and look out the window.
    But a lot of this was the product of his illness, and putting aside his racism, there was a lot to admire about Hughes. I don't think you'll be disappointed in the book.

  44. #44
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by NOVSTORM View Post
    I stayed at the hotel in Vegas where he had the 2 upper floors. I saw him and his "men" leaving and they had him surrounded . He wasn't all that ill at that time as he was walking by himself and he looked pretty nice. I read that after his plane crash that he had a lot of brain damage. In the end I think he was really being held hostage by these goons he had in his employ. They didn't seek medical help for him and collected these huge paychecks.
    Thanks for that - interesting stuff. What year was it? Because we all know what he looked like in the end.

  45. #45
    Bigfoot Guest
    I see this guy as always trying to think 1 step ahead, but at the same time, a coockoo with a huge amount of money. The Aviatior creeped me out a little.

  46. #46
    TheMysterian Guest

    Howard Hughes

    I have always been fascinated by Howard and his life,it's a shame he died the way he did,so wealthy and yet so helpless. As a kid I watched the movie "The Carpertbaggers" with George Peppard, his caracter "Jonas Cord" was supposed to be based loosely on Howard Hughes and shows just how ruthless a business man he could be. We owe a big thanks to some of his companies for our national defense!

  47. #47
    Ghoulie Girl Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by onehunglow View Post
    Sounds like the Goons hired to watch him made sure they had him under their control. He was used!

    On a serious note, I believe that is what happened.

  48. #48
    Ghoulie Girl Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by firegilnotguns View Post
    I can't help but think of Mr. Burns in that one Simpsons episode where he was all Howard Hughes-like. "I said get in."

    And on the silly side, that's just waht I thought of when I saw the picture of Howard Hughes posted. I laughed so hard I nearly cried.

  49. #49
    TheMidnightPalace Guest
    I personally feel Howard Hughes was incredibly brilliant. Yes, he did suffer from severe OCD, which wasn't really diagnosed in those days. Outwardly, he appeared to be insane, I'm sure, to the many people affected by his radical whims. But anyone who has read a good biography on him will no doubt see how his mother's own OCD (who was also a germophobe), over-protection (which bordered on becoming manic) and strict nature made Howard into the person he became. He was taught that the world is a dirty place, and that everything in it was a potential risk to his safety. When you couple OCD with someone who is a natural genius, the result is Howard. I highly recommend a book on Hughes called Howard Hughes - The Untold Story. I reviewed the book a while back for anyone who might be interested:

    http://www.midnightpalace.com/index....ask=view&id=22

  50. #50
    Jack-O-Lantern Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by neilmpenny View Post
    From the book 'Citizen Hughes'

    There were dangers everywhere, and he was so vulnerable. The world was dealing with a facade. The real Howard Hughes lay hidden in a self-made prison, a naked old man in terrible pain and terminal terror, living like an inmate in the back ward of a mental institution, looking like a corpse laid out on a slab in the city morgue.
    He was a figure of gothic horror, something ready for or just risen from the grave. Emaciated, practically skeletal with only 120 pounds stretched out over his six-foot-four-inch frame, and hardly a speck of colour about him anywhere, not even his lips, he seemed not merely dead but already in decay. Only the long grey hair that trailed half way down his back, the thin scraggly beard that reached midway onto his sunken chest, and the hideously long nails that extended several inches in grotesque yellowed corkscrews from his fingers and toes seemed to be growing, still showing signs of life. That, and his eyes. Sometimes they looked dead, blank. But other times they gleamed from their deep sunk sockets with surprising, almost frightening intensity, fixed in a hard, searching, penetrating stair. Often, however, they seemed to stare in, not out.
    Hughes was in pain. Physical pain. Mental pain. Deep, unrelenting pain. Many of his teeth were rotting black stumps, some just dangling loose from his puffy, whitened, pus-filled gums. A tumor was beginning to emerge from the side of his head, a reddened lump protruding through the sparse strands of gray hair. He had bedsores festering all down his back, some so severe that eventually one shoulder blade-the bare bone-would poke through his parchment like skin. And then there were the heedle marks. The telltale tracks ran the full length of both his thin arms, scarred his thighs, and clustered horribly around his groin.
    Howard Hughes was an addict. A billionaire junkie. He was shooting up massive amounts if codeine, routinely "skin-popping" more than twenty grains daily, sometimes three or four times that much, regularly taking doses thought lethal. He had been hooked for two decades, ever since a 1946 plane crash, when his doctor prescribed morphine to ease the pain of what everyone thought would be his final hours. As he instead recovered, the doctors substituted codeine, and through the years Hughes demanded even-larger doses, finally setting up a byzantine illegal supply operation, getting prescriptions filled under assumed names at various Los Angeles drug stores.
    Often now he would wake in the terrors of withdrawal and begin his day by reaching down to the black metal box by his bedside where he kept his stash and his unsterilized hypodermic needle. Immediately mixing a fix, he would dissolve several white tablets in his pure bottled Poland Spring water, then jab the spike into his wasted body. Sometimes he prolonged the ritual by "double-pumping," injecting half the white fluid, then drawing it back up into the syringe with his blood, letting the needle dangle for a moment before he shot the full load back into his system. Then he would relax, and in the first warm flush of relief and satisfaction now and then softly sing a little jingle to himself, a little scat bebop routine he remembered from the old days. "Hey-bop-a-ree-bop. Hey-bop-a-ree-bop." And finally maybe a quiet chuckle.
    There were other drugs, and the codeine was not the worst of them. Hughes was also gobbling massive quantities of tranquilizers, up to two hundred milligrams of Valium and Librium at a single shot, ten times the normal dose. Blue bombers. And when he wasn't shooting codeine, he was swallowing fistfuls of Empirin #4, a prescription compound containing codeine, aspirin, caffeine, and a synthetic pain-killer called phenacetin. It was not the codeine but the phenacetin that was doing the real damage, ravaging his already shrunken kidneys. Eventually it would kill him.
    Wow neil, 'gothic horror' is not an overstatement. I knew he was really bad off, but this is just incredible.
    ...and I thought I was a 'pill popper' with my 10 mg. of Valium once in a while...after reading this I need another one!

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